Gonzaga No. 1 in final regular-season polls

The Sports Xchange

The SportsXchangeMarch 18, 2013

For the first time in 17 years a team from outside the six major conferences finished the regular season as the Associated Press' No. 1-ranked college basketball team. Gonzaga, from the West Coast Conference, was atop both the Associated Press and USA Today college basketball polls released Monday. Massachusetts, which came out of the Atlantic 10 to be ranked No. 1 in the final 1996 AP regular-season poll, was the last team to finish at the top and not be from the Pac-12, Southeastern Conference, Big East, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten or Big 12. Gonzaga (31-2) received 45 of a possible 65 first-place votes in the AP media poll, and 30 of 31 first-place votes cast in the USA Today coaches poll. The top five were identical in both poll, with Louisville second, followed by Kansas, Indiana and Miami. The top four ranked teams also earned the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, which starts this week.